I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions. It’s not that I don’t believe in them or think that they don’t work. It’s that I don’t believe in them in January and know they don’t work at this time of year. So I don’t start my new year on January 1st. I hold off until February. Why…

Is clutter taking over your life? Maybe it is and you don’t even realize it. As a personal productivity coach I work with clients helping them organize their lives to work more efficiently and achieve more of what they want from life. On one occasion I was working with a business owner who was experiencing a lot…

One of the biggest reasons for the pervasive clutter in my apartment is a lack of time to deal with it. It takes longer to put a shirt away than it does to just throw it on the floor, so onto the floor it goes. As long as there’s a path from the door to…

In December 2005, Paul Graham published an excellent essay entitled “Good and Bad Procrastination.”  It is an essay that is worth revisiting from time to time.  In it, he argued that at all times we can work on one of three things: a) nothing, b) things that are less important, and c) things that are…

Are you looking forward to the New Year or are you bogged down with unfinished tasks from this year?  No matter what sort of year you have had, you still have the opportunity to end this year on a high, and start the New Year on a positive note. You will have had a number…

The modern home is far bigger than the home of just 30 years ago – and far more cluttered! How can that happen? Basically, our demand for stuff is outstripping our ability to buy space – no wonder self-storage is one of the leading growth industries in the United States. Questions about runaway consumerism aside…

I’ve just had an opportunity to declutter my workspace, having spent half of the day swapping my home office and my son’s room around. The swap wasn’t an excuse to declutter (rather, to make better use of the utter lack of telephone outlets in our house) but I take every chance I get; we all…

In this uncertain economy people need to do more with less, make do, do without, do the math, and do it themselves. Why not DO SOMETHING by investing time in getting organized? Here are eight motivating reasons to do it now: Save money by knowing what you have. If you already know that you have…

Come join me this morning at 10am Pacific time for the live recording of Lifehack Live. This weeks’s guest is Lorie Marrero, creator of The Clutter Diet. As always, I’ll be taking your calls during the show, so call in with your questions and comments. The number is (347) 838-8244 (US-based phone number)…

Organized Home has a few great ways to get rid of clutter in your home or at work. For most of us, clutter is just the result of bad habits and indecision. The first method described attempts to force decision making in a very simple way: The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To…

Merlin Mann over at 43folders mentions a tip from Peter Walsh to help you trim your closet to size. What it entails is getting all the items that hang on hangers and put them up ‘backwards’ with the open end of the hook facing outwards. Then you set a date – a month or so. Now…

When organizing our clients’ homes, we teach people there are some common “stations” that virtually every home should have. Here are the seven that we feel are most important: 1. Destination Station – This station belongs where you come in and out of the house. It’s where you put all of your things…

As Professional Organizers, we don’t just get clients organized, we also teach them how to stay organized. Here are some empowering home organizing concepts that we teach people every day. Be decisive! Everything that is on your countertop or desk right now most likely represents decisions that have not been made. Clutter results from putting…

As Professional Organizers, we talk often with our clients about how getting organized is a lot like losing weight, since they both require a program of prevention, reduction, and maintenance. Preventing clutter from being created is the first step toward reducing your organizational “weight gain.” Here are a few tips to help you…

It’s really easy to slide on your work area cleanliness, especially if you work in a busy environment. Ian’s Messy Desk gives 10 tips on how to keep your workspace clean and organized. This is a guide “for the rest of us” on how to keep our desks organized and clean on a…